


There and Back again

by FellsApprentice



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Gen, LOTR, Missionfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22023814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FellsApprentice/pseuds/FellsApprentice
Summary: A mission to capture a horse thief turns into a background task after a rain storm forces them to to pause the hunt.
Relationships: Kankurou & Nara Shikako
Comments: 27
Kudos: 361
Collections: Dreaming of Sunshine Exchange 2019 B





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RinRynRen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RinRynRen/gifts).



"So, Sparky," Kankurou pokes, "Kiba told me you're pretty good at coming up with stories on the fly. Got one to pass the time?" 

They're holed up in a tea house on the southern end of Tea Country due to an unexpected monsoon. There's no point in being out in it. The tracks of the horse thief, albeit a horse worth a few million, are only going to disappear anyway. Better to wait.

Shikako thinks about it, twirling the ring on her finger, the new one with the inertia storing seals on it, while she watches the rain from her seat by the window.

"Got anything you want to hear?"

He shrugs. "Something worth dramatizing. I've got a play to present to the Daimyo of Grass Country in two months and I'm skunked for options I haven't done already at least ten times."

"Give me a minute." She implores. Then it hits her. 

"I got one. This might not be particularly polished though, and it's a long one."

"Perfect, whatcha gonna call it?"

She pauses, as though to think of one. She can't be too casual with pulling things out of her hat, or people might become suspicious.

"The Lord of the Rings."

"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie." She starts, reciting over the rest of the day how Sauron fell, Isildur was corrupted and killed and how the ring fell out of memory for the next four thousand years. 

She told of Bilbo's party, and Gandalf's fireworks, and how Frodo was given the Ring, and how he discovered the Ring's true identity. 

And by the time the clouds parted and the rain stopped, she was telling of how the Fellowship of the Ring left Rivendell, their members and armament, altering names and places to better fit their world.

"Continue tomorrow night?" He asked, a certain gleam in his eyes, and, to her dismay, a voice recorder in his hands.

"Sure." She answered, stretching. "Or today while we're tracking."

Kankurou slung his collection of puppet scrolls over his back. "If you feel like talking while running."

The tracks were, as predicted, nonexistent. But there were only two roads for the thief to take if he wished to continue with the plan they were sure he had in mind, and they quickly found a deserted camp where he, like themselves, had thought it wiser to hunker down for the storm.

"Well, you were right. He's heading for the coast." Kankurou commented. "What made you so certain?"

"The gambling houses." She answered. "Even if that horse never ran another race ever again, and without a bill of sale he legally can't, he's beat some of the best horses on the continent, and won three of the four biggest races of the year by a wide enough margin that his worth as a breeding sire alone is still worth almost as much as he is as an athlete."

"So they're banking on creating bastard foals to effectively darkhorse the rest of the league. Not a bad plan, if a little long term. And way too high profile." 

Shikako nodded, "Yeah, it probably would have worked if they hadn't gone for this particular one." 

"We need to hurry, if he makes it to the river, he'll probably have a ferry hired to wait for him."

"Summoning: Deer of the East and West Winds!"

Two stags stepped out of the chakra fog. 

"You called, Daughter of the forest?" One of the horse sized stags, a reddish brown animal with six times on each antler, inquired.

The other, more sandy in color and his crown matching his counterpart, looked Kankuro up and down suspiciously. "I assume you would like our assistance as mounts."

"Yep, Akemimaru." She confirmed. "We're tracking a horse thief, and you two are my only guarantee of catching him before he reaches the river, and his mount is considered one of the fastest on the continent."

Akemimaru snorted in clear dismissal. "Hop on up, little one."

"Got any advice, Sparky?" Kankurou asked, eyeing the tines.

"Hang on tight with your chakra and don't touch my antlers." Toshio instructed, "I'll do all the work."

Holding on turned out to be all Kankurou could manage.

They caught up with the thief just in time to catch the boat crew as well. They were hardly a challenge, all Shikako had to do was catch them in Shadow Paralysis so Kankurou could bind their hands.

The deer were more interested in the horse.

"I'll admit, he's impressive, for a human pet." Toshio commented.

Shikako rolled her eyes. "I can't march seven criminals on a four day trip, I don't have the chakra for that." 

"We only need the horse. The rest can be picked up by local guards. Besides, we'll have plenty of time for you to finish that story."

They bound the thieves to trees and left a marker before dismissing the deer. "We demand scritches when you get home." Toshio reminded her, nudging her back with his nose.

"And salt blocks." Akemimaru added.

"You'll get them." Shikako promised. "So where was I?"

"The Fellowship just decided they would attempt to cross the mountain pass."

"Ah. Well, that didn't turn out to be a good idea…" Shikako continued, describing the blizzard enhanced by Saruman's powers and the consequent descent into Moria, the tragedy they uncovered, their race to escape, and finally the death of Gandalf.

Kankurou stopped dead in his tracks. "What the fuck, Shikako?"

"You didn't think they were going to all get out alive did you? You asked for an epic."

"Yeah, but I figured at least one of the two goofy ones would go out first, not the damn wizard."

"Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?" Shikako quoted, reminding him of Gandalf's description of Gollum.

"Don't be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise can't see all ends. My heart tells me that those two still have things to accomplish in this story." She added with a sly smile.

Kankurou grinned and rolled his eyes. "Whatever Sparky."

By the time they turned over the horse back to his original owner, Shikako had completed the rest of the story. From the death of Boromir, the tale of the two towers, the siege of Gondor, and the capture of Frodo by the giant spider Shelob and his rescue from Cirith Ungol by Sam and finally the battle at the Black Gate and the destruction of the Ring the story took nine days to fully describe, their travel having been slowed down for the sake of their four legged escort.

"When I get it all written up, I'll try to get you an invitation." Kankurou offered, giving her a fist bump.

"If it's in Grass, I can't promise anything." She reminded, her tone turning sour at having to remind him of her near capture two years prior.

He just shrugged. "When there's a will, there's a way." He turned away as though to walk off, paused, and turned back to face her. "Not to be a softie like you Leaf shinobi, but I'm glad we got to do this. It was fun, and I don't say that about missions often."

"You too, Kankurou." She returned. "Stay safe."

"Yeah, you too Sparky, if you're capable of that."

……….

A month and a half later Shikako found herself in Tsunade's office, four tickets on the desk between them. "I suppose it was only a matter of time until one of Jiraiya's students started publishing." She stated dryly, then sighed. "At least what you write is suitable for all ages."

"Of course!" Shikako returned, insulted by the idea of writing anything else.

"He's offered the village and you, a percentage of the sales for the opening night if you'll go, so pick three, and get to the Sand village. Please keep in mind that you will be crossing paths with a lot of royalty and very rich patrons, so choose your team accordingly." Tsunade advised.

Shikako took a moment to think before settling on her choices. "Sasuke, if you'll allow him out now that we're both Jonin, Ino Yamanaka, and Hinata Hyuuga. We're all members of respected clans, we're a good representation of the Leaf's diplomatic showing, and we all did very well at our Chuunin Exams, which, since this play was meant for the Daimyo of Grass, many of them will no doubt remember."

Tsunade slid the tickets across the desk. "Have fun then, and don't drop your guard."

……….

The performance was nothing short of spectacular, as puppet theatre went. The puppets were wonderfully crafted, the voice actors excellently chosen, and the special effects were implemented beautifully.

"How'd you like it?" Kankurou asked her afterwards, pressing her into signing tickets as the other three acted as their guard.

"It's everything I imagined it as." She answered honestly.

"I still can't believe you came up with that." Sasuke said, shaking his head. "How long did it take?" 

"Nine days, ironically." Kankurou answered.

"I have a gift for bullshitting." Shikako excused hurriedly.

"Oh nobody doubts that. Might Gai might even say you're genius at bullshitting." Sasuke agreed with a grin.

She returned it and shot him the bird.

"I thought it was beautiful." Hinata stated. 

"No one's doubting that either."

"Did you base anybody after real people?" Ino asked suddenly, from where she'd been sitting uncharacteristically quietly after she'd cried at several points in the performance.

Shikako looked back at her. "Bits and pieces." She answered quietly.


	2. Horcrux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shikako finds that she rather enjoys being a writer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had originally intended for this to be a one shot, but Shikako has a lot of stories she might want to publish.

After the premier, the next time Shikako hears of _The Lord of The Rings_ is a year later and she's receiving a rather hefty check in the mail by way of her father. "This is yours, deerheart." He says with a smile when they separate.

She had been gone for the month somewhere unspeakable and she's very excited about seeing someone who isn't part of an ANBU team not her own and actual running hot water. Her brow wrinkles in confusion as she opens the envelope and then her eyes bug out. That's a lot of zeros.

"What is this?" She asks.

"Kankuro drafted that play of yours and had it published under your name for half the profits. It's just now that the paperwork got through and it's a hell of a seller."

She looks down at the startling amount of money written on the check again and tries to figure out how it feels to be a best seller in ten nations under a hijacked story.

"Huh." She says.

"I'm very proud of you." Shikaku tells her, giving her another hug. "Welcome home." 

She gives a sputter of incredulous laughter.

It's only after she starts getting monthly checks that the reality of being, to one degree or another, comfortably well off completely outside of her already highly financially rewarding shinobi career starts to sink in. 

She's top tier on multiple Bingo books now, has been for years and so a roster of steady A- and B-rank missions when she's in the mood to work means that a reasonable budget for neccessary bills still means a decent amount to play with whenever she feels like it. Especially since she's effectively part of a Double Income No Kids household. In her previous life she might have told you that was an impossibility at the age of 18.

And because she's got one success down, she starts to wonder about the next thing she can get away with. 

It comes to her when she's sitting on the couch opening one of the monthly checks from the publishing company and otherwise figuring out if she can afford to just pay the rent for a year in a row, or maybe get one of the Uchiha houses renovated so she and Sasuke can move out of the apartment that started out as his before Team Seven and is now rather firmly theirs.

She looks down at her lap where he is using her as a pillow after a rather long solo mission. He shifts in his sleep from his side to his stomach, and she can see the edge of the ugly black mark peaking out from under his shirt. It's empty, spent and harmless. It has been so for a year and half. Every time she asks if it ever hurts, he shakes his head. Not since they tracked down and destroyed every single curse mark Orochimaru had made, every single person with inclination to bring him back.

Still, she drifts her fingers across the curse and through his hair and the image of him grumpily borrowing her Swirlyscopes to look at a seal comes to mind. He looked like……. A slow grin breaks out across her face. She knows exactly what story she's going to borrow for funds next.

So she writes, about a newcomer eager to find her place in a society that doesn't want her, an orphan eager to escape a terrible family, and a member of that society who gave them what they needed most. Of a Dark, Snakey Lord and his seven pieces of soul and how the orphan, made so by the monster, defied and destroyed him as he grew up, to great cost and with great bravery and how he couldn't have possibly done it without his friends and a spy who died for love but who was probably better off dead anyway.

She eventually finishes it. All seven books and for want of anything else to do with it, she gives it to Kankuro.

"See I knew I'd get you into this." He preens, tucking the manuscript under his arm. 

She shrugs. It's allowing her to relive the favorite books she grew up with the first time rather nicely and honestly how could there be a world where these stories didn't exist. It's a tragedy she's fixing. Sasuke gives her a mock annoyed look when he reads the first book. "My hair is not that bad."


End file.
